Red Robin #26 & Teen Titans #99

Let's switch gears and head over to the DCU with two titles featuring Red Robin. First up is the final issue of the Red Robin series, as well as the penultimate issue of Teen Titans before the reboot. For the first time in ages I'm looking forward to Teen Titans, which means it'll probably be painfully bad...

Red Robin #26:

Summary: Wanting to get revenge for the death of his father at the hands of Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang, Red Robin concocts a somewhat convoluted plan that leads Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang into direct odds with Mr. Freeze. Ultimately Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang and Freeze do meet up and are about to come to blows(with Freeze undoubtedly winning), but Red Robin can't allow somebody else(Freeze) to kill Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. With that, Red Robin enters the room and knocks Freeze out, which gives Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang the opportunity to escape to the rooftops. Red Robin confronts Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang on the rooftops and winds up winging the villain with a boomerang, which knocks Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang off of the roof. Instead of letting Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang fall to his death, Red Robin snares Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang with his grappling line and ends up turning him over to the cops. From there, Batman(Dick Grayson) and Robin arrive on the scene with Bats complementing Red Robin for not allowing the man who killed his father to fall to his death. After Bats and Robin leave, Batman(Bruce Wayne) emerges from the shadows and tells Red Robin that he knew the truth(of course he does...), and that he knew that it was Red Robin who drew Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang to Gotham in order to kill Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. Bats tells Red Robin that he should never have gotten himself involved with Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang in the first place, before leaving. With that, Red Robin stands on a rooftop and contemplates his next move.

Thoughts: I actually enjoyed this comic a lot. I'd have enjoyed it more if Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang somehow died, be it due to Red Robin or even a pure accident, but I guess I should have known better. As long as Chairman Johns is living and breathing, his beloved Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang will NEVER be harmed again. With the exception of Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang surviving this issue, I can't think of anything to complain about... Tim's plan was solid, and he should have simply allowed Freeze to ice(heh) Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. So yeah, the story was good, the pacing was fast, the art was good, my only problem was with the outcome. Instead of this issue ending with Bats berating Tim, I'd have preferred it if it ended in a cliffhanger sort of way, with Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang falling off of the roof and Tim moving towards the ledge, but ending before we saw what he did. That way we'd get both outcomes, one for people like me, who felt Tim should have allowed Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang to die, while people on the other side of the fence could have envisioned Tim saving the formerly old, fat and bald bastard.

Score: 9 out of 10.I agree, just let him fall!!!


Teen Titans #99:

Summary: We get things underway with the Teen Titans facing off against Superboy Prime and his Evil Teen Titans, complete with not one, not two, but THREE Superboy clones(which we learn were all cloned from Superboy's old enemy, Match). The two sides battle to a stalemate for a while before Prime suddenly leads his team away from the battle and towards Titans Tower... And I mean “suddenly” literally! One page everybody was fighting and the next the villains were flying towards the tower! One of Prime's teammates, Headcase, tears apart the Golden Gate Bridge and uses his telekinesis to turn it into a giant metal monster. The angry bridge heads for Titans Tower to destroy it while the Titans themselves are busy saving the people who had been on the bridge when it was pulled apart. Prime and his team(and the angry bridge) head for the Tower, but luckily, a who's who of former Teen Titans are standing in front of the Tower ready to defend it.

Thoughts: This actually wasn't that bad of a comic. I really enjoyed the first few pages... At least until the villains suddenly headed towards Titans Tower... I seriously thought that maybe I was missing a page or something, because we go for the Titans battling against Prime and company to the villains flying towards the Tower, with NO explanation between scenes. That hurt the flow of this issue for me, but the more I think about it, I do understand why it happened like that. Maybe JT Krul had planned for this storyline to run longer than just three issues and had to cut some stuff out due to the reboot? Besides that, and this is a REALLY small gripe, but worth pointing out, there was no title for this issue... Usually you'll have the credits along with a story title on a page somewhere in the book. This issue gave us the credits, but no title... Weird. With only one more issue of this series to go, and something like 3 issues of Teen Titans released in a matter of 4 or 5 weeks, I guess that explains the little mistakes that I found here and there.

Score: 8 out of 10.Well, it's not the real Inertia, but it's something... I guess...

Red Robin #25 & Batgirl #23

It's finally DC time! The first two DC comics I'll be reviewing this week are one of my favorite DC titles(Batgirl), as well as one of my favorite DC characters(Red Robin). With DC rapidly moving towards the reboot, I doubt either of these books will have any sort of lasting impact, but hopefully they'll at least be good reads...

Red Robin #25:

Summary: This issue gets started with Black Bat(the former Batgirl, Cassandra Cain), swooping in to save Red Robin from being deflowered... What?! She did!! Anyway, Cass takes care of Ra's Al Ghul's wacky half-sister(who was trying to get it on with Saint Timmy) and Promise before freeing Tim. With the villains down and Tim safe, the two discuss what their next step should be with this whole assassination tournament, and while Tim is deep in thought and distracted, Cass stabs him with her katana, seemingly killing him! With Tim dead, Cass is declared the winner of the tourney, and a secret door opens up allowing her to enter to claim her prize. A disembodied voice tells her she'd be immortalized for her victory, and a laser blast comes at her, but she is saved by Tim?! It turns out Tim and Cass planned a way to fake his death in order to get Cass access to whoever was running the tourney. The voice tells Tim that it was impressed with his actions, and that it held the tournament to discover the most deadly assassins and then eliminate them for the good of mankind. Before Tim and Cass can glean anything more, the lair begins to self destruct, and it winds up exploding after the two get clear. With that taken care of, Tim heads to Hong Kong to try to help Cass defeat the Cricket, who kicks both of their asses and leaves Tim with a broken arm and some fractured ribs. We also learn that Lucius Fox was still alive, and that his death was faked by the Gotham Police department. Tam Fox is furious with Tim for not telling her that her dad was still alive, and she winds up breaking up with him. With ALL of that out of the way, this issue ends with Tim wondering how his life would change now that he was responsible for assassinating Capt. Boomerang(!?).

Thoughts: Again, and I've been saying this A LOT when it comes to the DC books lately, this issue was very rushed. The assassination tournament stuff was wrapped up, as was the longer running sister of Al Ghul thing. Tim finally broke up with Tam Fox, which doesn't bother me because I never really got their relationship. And in one quick page we get the Lucius Fox is alive announcement, as well as a quick one page blurb showing Cass and Tim getting owned by the Cricket. I mean, I did like the way everything ended, so I can't complain about any of that, it was all just so brisk... I'd have loved to have seen a longer battle between Cass/Tim and the Cricket. Or a longer scene showing exactly how Tim broke the news to Tam about her father. But alas, it was not to be. Still in all though, this issue was quite good, probably one of the better DC books I've read in some time, so I guess I can't complain too much...

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.That's gonna leave a mark! Or will it???


Batgirl #23:

Summary: We get started with three of the Reapers armor-clad goons attacking a police station to steal back the armor that had been impounded by the police from two of their members. The armor-clad goons make short work of the cops, killing several of them before they manage to find the two sets of armor and leave. Meanwhile, Batgirl and Det. Gage come across the corpse of the Grey Ghost, Batgirl's unwanted sidekick. It turns out that Ghost had managed to infiltrate the Reapers base to feed Batgirl information to prove his worth, but the Reapers found out about his duplicity and killed him. All he left was a recording that goes off when Batgirl touches the device, telling her that the Reapers were trying to gain metahuman powers, but that the check from their mystery benefactor bounced. Before he could say anymore though, he is found out and the transmission abruptly ceases. Right after that, Gage hears about the robbery at the police station and both he and Batgirl realize that the Reapers next step would be to free their two captured members from Blackgate prison. Before long, Batgirl heads to Blackgate just as after the Reapers had broken in and caused a riot to cover their tracks. We learn that the Reapers mystery benefactor was actually at the prison, and the Reapers begin to march through the prison in search of him. Batgirl arrives on the scene and attacks all five of the Reapers, but quickly finds herself overpowered. Before the Reapers can kill her, she screams out, “Shazam!”(?!), which confuses the Reapers, but signals Supergirl, Stargirl, Miss Martian and Bombshell to come in to help. The five females make quick work of the five armor-clad Reapers, and while her four allies head through the prison to quell the riot, Batgirl decides to see if she could find whoever it was that pissed off the Reapers by giving them the bounced check. After walking through the prison, Batgirl finds one cell that was not open, and figures that whoever was inside was hiding from the Reapers, and opens it up to find... Her own father, the villain known as the Cluemaster!!!

Thoughts: Okay, that ending was all kinds of awesome! The rest of this comic? It was okay. I mean with only one more issue left of this magnificent series, I get that Bryan Q. Miller had to rush his story a bit, which is why we probably got a quick, one issue showdown between Batgirl(and friends) against the Reapers. With that said though, with how long the Reapers/Batgirl stuff had been building, I'd have hoped for a longer, more dramatic battle there... I mean this was a perfectly acceptable comic book, but that was about all it was...

Score: 7 out of 10.Why would the Gotham City prison system allow a costumed criminal to keep their costume in their cell???

Red Robin #24 & Batman & Robin #24

I've got two DC comics to get through here, both from the Bat-family of books, and both issue #24 of their respective series... Oooo, creepy!

Red Robin #24:

Summary: This issue gets started with Red Robin sending an electric pulse out of his costume to debilitate the various Scarab Assassins who were gunning for him. Unfortunately, the Scarab Assassin Tim freed from Gotham City to lead him to the other Scarabs manages to sneak away. From there Tim learns that somebody was using the weird assassination tournament that was going on as a ruse to kill Viktor Mikalek. Tim heads to the injured Mikalek's hospital room and Mikalek informs Tim that Promise(who Tim had met in Russia a few issues back) was responsible for the assassination attempt. Tim figures Promise would try to complete her hit and scouts nearby buildings, discovering the perfect vantage point to shoot Mikalek from. Tim crashes through the window and discovers a sniper rifle, but no Promise. A giant angry Russian guy in a mask comes barging through the wall and suddenly attacks Tim, nearly beating him, if not for some assistance from Promise and a gun shooting rubber bullets. Tim begins searching the big Russian guy for clues, and gets attacked by Promise, who now has some sort of strange shadowy powers. After a bit, Tim wakes up and finds himself chained on his knees in front of Promise and a strange cloaked figure. The cloaked figure reveals that she knows Tim's secret identity, before pulling off her all of her clothes and telling Tim that before she killed him, she wanted to have Tim's baby... Wait, really?!

Thoughts: What the hell was this?! I'm almost at a loss for words as to what I just read... THIS is what Fabian Nicieza has been building towards? Some bondage fun with Saint Timmy?? I have no clue who the crazy woman in the cloak is(I'm guessing that Al Ghul from early on in this series?), nor why she wants to have Tim's child... I actually didn't understand most of what was going on here. I will say this much, here's hoping the weird cloaked woman has some sort of... medication to help Saint Timmy do the deed, because I don't think he'd be very interested in copulating with her unless she puts on a Superboy t-shirt... If you know what I'm saying...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.When in doubt, always post the full page pictures.


Batman & Robin #24:

Summary: Not trusting the Zoo Crew after they broke him out of his prison transport last issue, Jason Todd(or the Red Hood if you prefer) decides to attack his animal would-be rescuers and escape from them. Unfortunately, Jason has no real weapons and the animal people have the strength, speed, etc of their animal counterparts. Before the animal feebs manage to get Jason back in control, Batman(Dick Grayson for this issue) and Robin arrive on the scene to take the Zoo Crew down and get Jason back into custody. The leader of the animals(a lion naturally), tells the animals that while they were supposed to take Jason to their leader unharmed, Bats and Robin were a different story, and the animals pull out their real guns and knives. After a bit of a battle, Jason manages to get a hold of one of the guns with the live ammo and takes one of the animal people hostage. Jason is ready to escape with his hostage, but the lion tells him he had a phone call from their leader. Jason takes the call and some weird woman tells Jason to head to her headquarters if he ever wanted to see... UGH!!! Scarlet again. From there, Bats and Robin accompany Jason to one of his safe houses where he grabs his weapons, suits up and prepares to head to the mystery woman's base with Bats and Robin to rescue Scarlet.

Thoughts: Well this is turning out to be one of the biggest disappointments of the year for me... I mean it's Judd Winick, writing Jason Todd!! I should be LOVING this! I should be glowing, and telling everybody within earshot that this is one of my favorite stories of the year... Instead I'm simply wondering what went wrong here... I hated the Grant Morrison take on the Jason Todd character, and I detest Scarlet. So right off the bat, the fact that Scarlet is now playing a major role in things has me annoyed. On the plus side, most of that awful Red Hood costume from the Morrison issues has been done away with, as Jason is now wearing a combination of his original Red Hood outfit(the helmet and jacket) along with the spandex top and bottom from the Morrison storyline. Was this a bad comic? No, it was alright, but that's kind of my problem here... It was JUST alright. I was expecting amazing, and this was simply okay... And for this comic, with this writer and this character, okay is a major letdown.

Score: 7 out of 10.Hell, I wouldn't let a bunch of animal people take me anywhere either!

Batman Incorporated #6 & Red Robin #23

Here's the first of what I'm hoping will be a wave of new posts today! Unless I get too busy that is...

Batman Incorporated #6:

Summary: This issue gets started with a caucus between several smalltime mobsters from Pennsylvania meeting in Gotham to take their best shot at Batman. They hire a man named Nero Nykto who has oodles of information on Batman and his ever growing Batman Inc organization. From there we get several flashbacks of Bruce Wayne introducing his army of Batman robots, donning the Batman cowl and heading around the world to meet with and induct new Batman Inc members, plot against Leviathan, hook Red Robin up with the Outsiders(Red Robin and the Outsiders? I like it!), and make shadowy plans with mysterious figures. We learn that Leviathan(as well as his associate, Dr. Dedalus)were operating from a space station high above the Earth... Sort of like a James Bond villain, but I digress. This issue ends with Nero Nykto revealing that he was actually Batman, and beating the dumb mobsters into submission while reminding them that the Batman was everywhere.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this issue... What's up with that? I mean I've really been enjoying(and more importantly, understanding!) Grant Morrison's Batman Inc work lately... Does that mean he's getting saner or am I getting crazier? Anyway, this issue basically showed us what was going on with Bruce Wayne, and how he was preparing himself and his allies for the impending showdown with Leviathan. So yeah, that's all good and all, but for me, nothing else about this comic mattered with the exception of one page, and one simple panel. We see Batman talking to somebody and offering them a slot in his Batman Inc organization as the Wingman... Now there were a few hints thrown out by Morrison here, including the fact that Wingman had a bad reputation and that Wingman knew Bruce was Batman... That's a VERY short list, a list that would be headlined(in my mind at least) by Jason Todd... If Wingman does happen to be Jason, I will be one VERY happy Batman fan! Once again, Grant Morrison is proving to be the Anti-Chairman Johns, giving us interesting, new stories, instead of recycling the same tired crap.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Please be Jason Todd... Please be Jason Todd...


Red Robin #23:

Summary: Basically, Red Robin(Timmy the Saint) learns of a plot to assassinate Lucius Fox. He tells Commissioner Gordon and Batman(Dick Grayson) of the plot, but apparently not Lucius. Timmy the Saint and Bats stake out the restaurant Lucius was dining at and are surprised when he is shot from a guy in flying armor, armor reminiscent of the Scarab. Bats gives chase but winds up losing Scarab. Oh, and according to reports, Lucius died, although Timmy the Saint was indicating that Lucius's “death” was all a part of a larger plan. Anyway, Timmy the Saint convinces Bats to get Gordon to release the first Scarab into his custody so he could use her to draw out the current Scarab. Timmy the Saint takes Scarab #1 to Egypt, where he is jumped by a mess of other people in Scarab costumes, whose sole duty was to kill Red Robin.

Thoughts: Meh. I didn't really like or hate this one. Which you could probably tell from the review. It was what it was, a perfectly acceptable, if somewhat confusing, comic.

Score: 7 out of 10.That's not Superboy! What's Tim doing?!?

Red Robin #22 & Justice League of America: 80 Page Giant 2011 #1

Four DC reviews to go tonight(in two different posts), as I finish up last week's books in order to get to this week's comics. Once I get my new cord for my laptop, I should be busting out reviews like there's no tomorrow! But until then, it'll be in drips and drabs.

Red Robin #22:

Summary: This issue is a part of the Judgment of Gotham storyline. What's that you ask? Exactly... We get started with Tim Drake announcing that during Final Crisis he went to church to confess his sins in case it truly was the end of the world. However, little Timmy had nothing to confess... REALLY?! Wow... Anyway, it seems that Azrael has kidnapped the mayor of Gotham City and threatened to kill him unless Tim arrives at City Hall to be judged by Azrael's sword. Tim has an hour to reach City Hall before Azrael kills the mayor. Oh, and standing between Tim and City Hall? The Crusader, who has massive telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers. The Crusader continues to place obstacles in Tim's path(flying school buses, crashing blimps, etc) to see how Tim responds to these threats. Tim manages to save everybody and makes it to City Hall before Azrael's deadline had passed. Tim demands that Azrael lets the mayor go, so Azrael stabs Tim in the chest with his sin-sensing sword. Tim is unharmed by the sword, which means he was truly without sin... REALLY?!? Having finally found someone without sin, Azrael is ready to call off his attack on Gotham, but before he can, the Crusader enters the room and tells Azrael that Tim doesn't believe in God, and as such, wasn't worthy. Azrael asks Tim if this was true, and Tim replies affirmatively. With that, Azrael sadly announces that Tim had failed his test and he and the Crusader leave. This issue ends with the White Ghost telling Ra's Al Ghul that Tim had failed the test. Ra's is glad, since he knows that both Dick Grayson(Batman) and Selina Kyle(Catwoman) are sinners, meaning that once they failed their tests, Azrael and Crusader would raze Gotham.

Thoughts: I liked this issue, although I'm not exactly sure what I think about this storyline yet... Are Azrael and this Crusader feeb really that unstoppable that NONE of the heroes of Gotham can stop them? I can't buy that. Plus I'm not exactly sure what Ra's game is here. Now, before I ended this review I'd be remiss to not mention the fact that Tim Drake is apparently WITHOUT sin! I mean hell, EVERYTHING is a sin! You're going to tell me he's never sinned once, ever, at all?! I mean he once tried to boink his dead best friend's girlfriend, shouldn't that be a sin? I guess I should strip the Saint moniker from Barry Allen and pass it on to Timmy!

Score: 8 out of 10.All Hail Saint Timmy!!!


Justice League of America: 80 Page Giant 2011 #1:

Summary: This issue was literally 80 pages, so if you're expecting an in-depth review, you're out of luck! Basically 18 members of the JLA(yes 18!), find themselves stuck in one of the 9 areas of Hell, and have to face their fears and overcome the various ordeals that Hell offers. After a LONG trip through Hell, in which the team is split into 9 groups of 2, they all manage to retrieve a piece of a mask that was hidden in each ring of Hell. Once that is accomplished, the team is sent to purgatory, where they discover Lord Satanus trapped in a cage by his sister Blaze, the current ruler of Hell... Huh, and here I thought Chairman Johns was the current ruler of Hell... Anyway, Satanus reveals that the team had assembled the Hell Mask for him, which gives him the power to control any being, including God himself or the devil. Since Batman was suspicious of this whole situation, he had Plastic Man hide himself in one of the pieces of the mask, allowing Plastic Man the opportunity to get the Mask away from Satanus. However, Plastic Man puts the Mask on, since he wanted to try to undo things that went wrong in his life. The Mask turns out to be too powerful for a mere mortal to use, leading to Plastic Man going on a mini-rampage. Eventually Plastic Man regains his sanity long enough to force the team to kill him lest he kills them. So Plastic Man is dead... Or is he? Zauriel arrives on the scene with Plastic Man and tells the JLA that since it wasn't Plastic Man's time to die yet, he was bringing him back. With that, the JLA and Zauriel leave, with Blaze trying to figure out a way to further punish her brother.

Thoughts: My god was this comic LOOOOONG!!! Usually that's a good thing, especially for a comic that was $6, but after like the 6th tale of JLA member in Hell, I was definitely ready for this issue to end... And then it KEPT on going! Was the story horrible? No, but it just wasn't for me. One question I have was, when exactly does this story take place?!? We have Wonder Woman dressed in her Teenage Amazon attire but acting like regular Wonder Woman, Batman was Bruce Wayne dressed in his new Bat attire, so yeah, that really left me puzzled...

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.But... But why does Teenage Amazon Wonder Woman have classic Wonder Woman's memories?!?!?

Quick Hits: 3/24/11

I said I'd have to get a move on with these reviews, especially in light of earlier today's rather... enthusiastic trip to the comic book shop. I mean those 20 something comics I picked up aren't gonna review themselves, so here are the last couple of comics that I needed to review from last week. Next on the agenda, THIS week's books!

Iron Man 2.0 #2:

Summary: The mystery of Palmer Addley continues here with the(thought to be) dead Palmer possessing a US soldier and making him don a suicide bomber's vest to kill several other US soldiers in Iraq. War Machine(who has been tasked with solving the riddle of how Palmer is striking from beyond the grave) heads to Suzi Endo, a world class computer expert(and possible ex of Rhodey's). Suzi manages to track the signal that set off the bomber's vest to a location in Russia, which is where Rhodey flies to. Rhodey finds an abandoned warehouse and upon further inspection discovers a whole mess of dead Russian soldiers pinned to a wall. Rhodey catches a glimpse of somebody out of the corner of his eye and pursues them, but winds up getting hit with a monster virus, which completely shuts down his armor. While laying face down, somebody walks up to the helpless War Machine and tells him to go back to the States and tell his bosses that Palmer Addley is dead. Suzi, who was keeping an eye on Rhodey after he left, manages to reboot Rhodey's hydraulic system, which gets him up off the ground, before telling him to get out of the warehouse as soon as he could. Rhodey tries to drag himself out the door, but is caught in a huge explosion before he could get clear. This issue ends with War Machine laying wrecked in a massive crater.

Thoughts: First things first, I do enjoy a good mystery. And this story is giving us a good mystery. I'm as lost as Rhodey when it comes to Palmer Addley, and how he's doing what he's doing. So yes, the story here is very good. BUT(you had to see that coming!), I don't know who many of the characters are in this series... I have NO clue who Suzi Endo is, and what her relationship to Rhodey is. I'm guessing they were an item once, but I'm not sure. That's more on me than Nick Spencer though, because I really never followed Iron Man(or War Machine) until very recently. The bottom line though is that I'm enjoying this comic, and look forward to learning more about the mystery of Palmer Addley.

Score: 8 out of 10.I hope the speech is at least interesting...


REBELS #26:

Summary: Last issue ended with Lobo killing one of Starro's lieutenants, Storm-Daughter. While Starro is more concerned with hiding the Lobo clones he had under the Psion homeworld, his other lieutenant, Smite, wants Lobo to pay for the murder. Starro decides to take the starfish off of Dox's face to find out how to beat Lobo, but Dox simply taunts Starro because he's AWESOME. Starro gets tired of hearing Dox, so he sticks th starfish back on Dox's face(HA!). Back on the planet Rann, Starro's forces are slowly beginning to overrun the planet, with Starro's mind controlling starfish attaching themselves to Adam Strange's daughter, as well as his father-in-law. Smite decides to program all of the Lobo clones the Psion's had created with the memory of how Lobo destroyed their homeworld of Czarnia, figuring the best way to beat Lobo was with an army of Lobos. Starro nixes this idea, since he didn't want to risk losing control of the Lobo clones. Smite gets sick of Starro and decides to face Lobo himself, so he could avenge Storm-Daughter's death. With Smite occupying Lobo, Starro tells all of his mind controlled Psion's to move the Lobo clones to a safer place, while he takes the mind controlled Dox to Rann to finish conquering that world. Back on Rann, Dox's son, Brainiac 3(Lyrl Dox) learns that most of Rann has been conquered by Starro's forces, meaning it was up to him to revive the near dead Tribulus to mount some kind of offensive against Starro before it was too late.

Thoughts: *sigh* I honestly can't believe this series is going to be canceled in a few short months... I say this as somebody who reads a LOT of comic books monthly(if you don't believe me, just check out any of my New Comic Day posts!), both DC and Marvel, so I'm not saying this lightly, REBELS is THE best comic coming out of DC, and probably one of the top 5 comics I read every month. As always, Tony Bedard's story was fantastic and the art was great as usual. I don't know what more to say. I'd implore people to read this comic book, but by this point it's too little too late. Before I go on a wicked rant against my fellow comic fans, and the DC hierarchy, I think it would be best to just end this review right now...

Score: 9 out of 10.That top panel made me literally laugh out loud!


Red Robin #21:

Summary: Okay, let me just say right now that there is NO earthly way I can even begin to review this comic book. It was THAT bad... All I'm going to say is that Red Robin seems to FINALLY have managed to shut down the Unternet by dooming the Madmen to live out their lives as lunatics... Oh, and in the end it appears that Anarky(Lonnie Machin) somehow manages to keep a sliver of the Unternet alive...

Thoughts: All I have to say about this comic book is this: THANK GOD this storyline is FINALLY over!!!!! This Unternet business was just a massive headache where I understood every third page. Now hopefully Fabian Nicieza can get off this Unternet kick he's apparently on so we can get some good Red Robin stories, like we used to before the Unternet junk came to the forefront.

Score: 1 1/2 out of 10.Something happened here. The end.


Birds of Prey #10:

Summary: After Calculator “killed” Oracle last issue by blowing up her helicopter, he decides to kill Huntress, Dove(good!) and Lady Blackhawk. Before he can get the job done though, Black Canary arrives on the scene, apparently not selling the mental abuse Mortis delivered to her last issue. This gives Huntress, Dove and Blackhawk the chance to break out of their bonds, while Hawk also shows up to lend a hand. Calculator tries to get away, but is caught by Huntress, who lets him go, but not before telling him that by killing Oracle he'd be facing the full wrath of the entire super-hero community. After all the Calculator stuff is taken care of, we head to the Batcave, where we learn Oracle is still alive(duh). She tells Batman(Bruce Wayne), Batman(Dick Grayson), Red Robin, Batgirl, and that worthless pain in the ass Misfit that she was still alive, but that she would only be working with them from this point forward, since too many bad guys had learned of her existence. And that's pretty much that.

Thoughts: Eh. It's not like this comic was bad or anything, it just didn't do anything to impress me. I like that Oracle faked her death, since that does take her off the radar of the villains, thus making the villains a bit more sloppy, but the rest of this issue was meh. I still hate that Hawk and Dove are on this team, it was never really explained how Black Canary managed to escape Mortis's mental torture, and Huntress letting Calculator go bothered me(even though I get why she did it). Plus I had to see Misfit, which always puts me in a bad mood. So yeah, this wasn't a bad comic, but it definitely wasn't something I'd want to spend a whole mess of time talking/thinking about.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.Now THAT is a big gun!


X-Factor #217:

Summary: Rictor, Madrox, Shatterstar and Longshot head to the graveyard where Jameson's general friend was killed a few issues back to see if Longshot could use his powers to “see” who shot the general. Meanwhile, Monet and Strong Guy come across some people protesting mutants and Muslims and begin to debate them. Mayor Jameson soon arrives on the scene and ALSO begins to debate... Ugh. Longshot manages to see who shot the general, and Rictor uses a facial recognition program to create a picture of the woman. Madrox sends the woman's picture to the other members of X-Factor, and Monet and Strong Guy spot the woman in the crowd of protesters heading towards Jameson. Strong Guy gets in front of her, and she shoots him through the chest with her finger(which fires some sort of energy bullets). With the crowd now panicked, a secondary sniper from above sets her sights on Jameson.

Thoughts: I didn't like this issue AT ALL! It was WAAAAY too preachy for my tastes. I like my politics on my TV(so I don't have to watch it!) and my entertainment in my comic books. Sure, some comics can get across a political message in a clever, non-browbeating sort of way, but this comic just irked me. And I say that as somebody who AGREES with the message Peter David was delivering through Monet and Mayor Jameson! Even still, I didn't think the protest scenes had any place in this comic, and it REALLY hurt my enjoyment of this usually good series.

Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.Please, let's not get into the Longshot/Shatterstar relationship again...


Batman #708:

Summary: Batman(Dick Grayson) is still suffering the aftereffects of being stabbed by Azrael and his magical sword. Don't ask me when that happened, because I have no clue. After a restless night sleep in which Dick was plagued by dreams of a circus performer from Haley's Circus being beaten to death(which he has NO memory of), Dick heads out after hearing about some lunatic running rampant in Gotham. Dick arrives on the scene and sights a floating man throwing fire and swords at all of the “sinners” he sees around him. Red Robin and Catwoman arrive on the scene to help, but the madman is too much for them, as he batters them with his myriad of powers. Azrael arrives on the scene and tells the madman to stop, revealing that the guy was named the Crusader. Azrael tells the Bat-members not to worry about Crusader, since he always listened to Azrael, but Dick wants Crusader taken to prison for all the damage/death he caused. Azrael says no, and vanishes with Crusader in a puff of smoke and fire. From there we head just outside of Gotham where we learn Ra's Al Ghul was enhancing the powers of some guy named Fireball so he'd be able to destroy all of Gotham. It appears that Azrael, Crusader and Fireball are working for Al Ghul, and are testing the heroes of Gotham. If the heroes fail the test, then Al Ghul intends on destroying the entire city.

Thoughts: This is actually the beginning of a crossover with at least Red Robin, and possibly Gotham City Sirens(even though that's just a guess on my part). I have to admit, I've never cared for this new Azrael, plus I don't know who Crusader and Fireball are... I have no idea when Dick was stabbed by Azrael, or what the deal with Dick's weird dreams were. So there were a lot of things I just couldn't enjoy here, because I had no clue what was going on! I did like seeing Ra's towards the end of this issue, because he is one of my favorite Bat-villains. But besides that, there were just too many times I sat back and had no idea what I was reading.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.What's a Batman review without the obligatory shirtless Dick Grayson pic?

Quick Hits: 2/17/11

Never let it be said I don't keep my promises(well most of the time anyway...). I promised to post an all DC Quick Hits edition for Thursday, and BAM, here it is. I actually enjoyed all three of these comics, which is a nice change of pace, especially when it comes to DC lately. Oh, and that announcement I promised in my New Comic Day post on Wednesday? I'll fill you guys in on it tomorrow night(Friday), when I put up a post explaining just what all of the hubbub is about. Don't worry, it's nothing earth-shattering or anything like that. The only other thing I have to mention is that I'm hosting my scans through Photobucket now, so if they look a bit different, that's why. If they look unbearably different, let me know in the comments section. Okay, that's what's coming tomorrow, but today I have some reviews to get to, so here they come.

Red Robin #20:

Summary: We get things started with Tim(as Red Robin) chasing after Catman, who had just left Lonnie Machin's hospital room with a flashdrive that would return control of the Unternet to Viktor Mikalek. Tim manages to catch up to Catman and the two do some sparring, but Catman is simply interesting in leaving town, so he shows Tim that he had stolen Tam Fox's cell phone and calls the Unternet with her phone, tipping the Calculator(who ran the Unternet for a time)that someone was trying to use the Unternet without his permission. With no choice, Tim has to let Catman go and rushes to Tam's dorm, just in time to see it blown up by a man who looks surprisingly like Calculator himself. Tim searches the rubble and is relieved to discover Tam wasn't there at the time, but that search allows Calculator to escape. Tim heads back to his base with a piece of the rocket used to destroy Tam's dorm and finds some footage of Calculator purchasing it... Except his facial recognition program can only match the Calculator in the footage to the 94th percentile. After some thought and sleuthing, Tim realizes that the Calculator he saw was actually a robot, and that 147 other Calculator robots went on-line with the one he saw. Realizing that he'd need some assistance, and not wanting to be spoken down to while on the mission, Tim turns to the Teen Titans. Tim and the TT trace the signal which activated the Calculator robots to a nightclub in Istanbul, and Robin(Damian)spots a Calculator robot, attacking and beheading it. Unfortunately this action reveals that the robot had a built in bomb, and that Tim and the TT were surrounded by several innocent civilians and a few Calculator robots, which were now primed to blow.

Thoughts: Hmm, let's see. I like, and have always liked Tim Drake, from his early Robin days to his current Red Robin identity. I like the current line-up of the Teen Titans, and have actually morphed into quite the Damian fan. I've liked Fabian Nicieza's writing since the 90's, and I've enjoyed JT Krul's current run on the Teen Titans. So putting all of that information together and mixing it up I can tell you quite definitively that I really liked this comic! Yeah, there were some things that bugged me, Catman's bizarre and totally uncalled for appearance being one of those things, but just about everything else was done really well. Tim turning to the Titans for help, especially since it was their mutual enemy(Calculator)he was squaring off against, made perfect sense, and all of the characters acted exactly as I would have expected them to act. I'm definitely looking forward to the next part of this x-over in the Teen Titans comic.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Can you believe that Damian has become one of my favorite DC characters?! If that's not a sure sign of the impending apocalypse I don't know what is!


Titans #32:

Summary: Captain Marvel(or Shazam, I'm not sure what the hell DC is calling him nowadays)and Osiris have a good, old fashioned super-hero throwdown after CM discovered that Osiris had been killing people with the hope of returning his sister, Isis, to life. While those two brawl in the streets of Philadelphia, Ink quits the Titans, figuring that now that he had avenged the death of his son he was done. Deathstroke tries to convince Ink to stay and keep assisting the Titans, but Ink turns them down and walks. Meanwhile, CM manages to reach Osiris by telling him that although they have the powers of gods, they can't walk around killing people indiscriminately. Osiris listens to CM go on for a while before he begins to wonder if killing CM would bring Isis back. Deciding to give it a shot, Osiris grabs CM and steals his powers, turning CM back into regular, old Freddy Freeman. Freddy tries to regain his powers by saying Shazam a few times, but they don't come back to him. Meanwhile, the Titans base rumbles violently from Osiris's room, and the villains head down to investigate. That Damn White Lantern Ring(yeah, that's its official name now) tells Osiris that he had accomplished his task, and he rushes back to the Titans base, finding Isis alive, but furious with him.

Thoughts: I didn't like the way Eric Wallace's run on this series started at all. I mean I disliked it so much I was seriously debating on whether I'd keep reading when my subscription was up. However, it seems with each passing issue I'm enjoying this series more and more. I liked this issue. It didn't blow my mind or anything, but it was a good, solid read. I like all of the little stories that it seems everybody on this team have going, from Cheshire and Roy to Ink to Osiris to even Deathstroke himself. This series is becoming pretty well rounded, and is shockingly becoming one of my favorite non-Bat family DC books(although that isn't really saying all THAT much with my recent displeasure with the DCU in general). Now I'm sure some of my longtime readers are probably kind of surprised by the fact that I haven't exploded at the fact that Freddy Freeman was robbed of his CM powers. Yeah, I am a big fan of Freddy, and feel he's about 17 and a half times more interesting than former CM Billy Batson. But let's face it, with DC's whole, “Everything old is new again” editorial dictum I knew Freddy's days as CM were numbered and as such had long braced myself. I have NO doubt that in the end Billy Batson will be the one to regain the CM powers, and as such have made peace with that. Does it suck? Yeah, it sucks HARD, but that's DC.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.It's not working because you aren't saying, "Shazam!" with the exclamation point!


Birds of Prey #9:

Summary: This one's pretty simple. Black Canary is being tortured mentally after having been touched by Mortis last issue. Huntress, Lady Blackhawk and Dove have been taken hostage by Calculator who thinks(but isn't sure)that Dove is Oracle. Black Canary manages to fight off the influence of Mortis back at the Birds base(which is where Batman took her), while Oracle heads to Calculator's headquarters in an attack helicopter. Oracle tells Calculator to release her minions or face the consequences, so Calculator has one of his goons(Current)blow up the helicopter, presumably killing Oracle in the process.

Thoughts: See that? Simple, just like I said. I've been really down on the Birds of Prey series since it restarted, mainly because of the way Hawk and Dove were unnecessarily foisted on the team. This was probably the first issue since the relaunch that I really enjoyed reading. It focused on the REAL Birds(Black Canary, Huntress, Oracle), the story finally came together, and everything made sense. Sure Dove got to do the whole Superman act which annoyed me, but the story itself was really solid. I enjoyed the Black Canary parts, with Dinah trying to fight off the effects of Mortis's touch(and ultimately succeeding)and I liked Oracle's “death”. Yeah, we ALL know that Oracle isn't dead, I mean the entire purpose of this storyline was for Oracle to fake her death to throw the various villains who had discovered she existed off her trail, but even with the ending being uber-obvious, I still enjoyed this one. The next issue is the finale to this storyline(it said so right on the last page!), and I'll be interested to see how Oracle decides to operate now that she'll be completely off the grid again.

Score: 8 out of 10.Now THAT shotgun would kill a whole horde of zombies!

Red Robin #19

Review: This is going to be a tough one to review... Red Robin wakes up in some sort of bizarre world where he is the prisoner of the old-school Calculator and Riddler. He ends up getting saved by Batman and Robin circa 1960-ish. After the original Dynamic Duo get rid of the Calculator, they disappear. Tim gets up and somehow realizes that he was trapped in the Unternet, and discovers Tam Fox, but in the form a baby. Oh, and for some reason Riddler is serving as the physical manifestation of Tim's subconscious mind. *shrugs* Tim, Tam and Riddler travel around the Unternet and run into Harley Quinn, who Tim decapitates in a move that even surprises him. He then spots the Joker, who was the “mayor” of the Unternet version of Gotham. The original Anarky, Lonnie Machin arrives and skewers Joker with his weapon. From there Tim, Tam, the Riddler and Lonnie head to the Unternet version of Metropolis, where Viktor Mikalek(the Russian businessman from last issue)had taken over. Metallo attacks, but is “killed” by the Russian vigilante, Promise. Promise tells them that Mikalek had killed all of the Unternet version of the Justice League to impress the other villains on the Unternet, and is shot by Deathstroke and vanishes. Tim moves in to attack Deathstroke, and realizes that he and his allies have as much control over the Unternet as the villains, meaning that they can do anything. Tam grows back up, while Tim takes down every villain that he sees. Anarky manages to create a whole slew of new heroes and announces that the heroes would act as an internal firewall, messing up the villains ability to access the Unternet. With that, Tim wakes up and tells Red Star what had happened and that Mikalek really was evil. Star promises that he'll do what he can against Mikalek, and this issue ends with Mikalek hiring Catman(???)to track down Tim and Tam so he could regain power over the Unternet.

Thoughts: And somehow THIS leads into the big Red Robin/Teen Titans x-over... Now, before I go any further, I just want to say a few things before getting into this issue. I'm a huge fan of Tim Drake and I've always enjoyed Fabian Nicieza's writing, going all the way back to the original X-Force. So yes, I like this series, and the writer of it. However, I REALLY didn't like this issue. At all. It just didn't make any sense to me! First of all, why is Catman working to track down Tim and Tam when he's more of a tweener character in the Secret Six books? Using him in this spot makes no sense at all. Speaking of making no sense, how does Catman, a member of the Secret Six, going after Tim lead to an x-over with the Teen Titans?! Even the end of this comic, with Red Star suddenly seeing things the way Tim was last issue and agreeing to take down Mikalek made little sense. What exactly changed his mind, and why does Tim suddenly trust Red Star enough to leave Russia? Plus the Unternet stuff was just a mess. When you read a comic and are thinking of a whole mess of plot holes, you know something went really wrong...

Score: 5 out of 10.I'm sure if it was up to Chairman Johns, EVERY Batman comic would be like this scene...

Red Robin #18

Review: This issue begins in Moscow as Red Robin meets with former Teen Titans teammate Red Star to alert him that he was going to be trying to learn more about the Unternet, which is basically the super-villain Internet. Tim has some suspicions that Russian billionaire Viktor Mikalek could possibly be involved with the proliferation of the Unternet, and as such has set up a meeting with the Russian(as Tim Drake)in order to plant a bug in his computer which would let him know if Mikalek had done anything illegal. Why alert Red Star to anything you ask? Because Tim didn't want to step on Red Star's toes since he was basically Russia's meta-human protector. Red Star seems intense, but fine with Tim's business in Russia. He does caution Tim to tread lightly when talking to Mikalek before leaving though. From there, Tim meets up with Mikalek and near the end of the meeting, the festivities are broken up by a gun-totting woman named Promise. The woman shoots several of Mikalek's men with rubber bullets, and before she can make a move towards Mikalek himself, Red Star enters the room. Figuring Promise had some information on Mikalek, Tim “accidentally” gets in the way, allowing Promise the chance to escape. The following night, Tim(as Red Robin)heads into the Russian night and tracks down Promise at a warehouse. Promise tells Tim that Mikalek had done several illegal things, but before she could elaborate, Red Star enters the warehouse looking to take Promise in. Tim gets information from his planted bug from before that Mikalek had indeed been using the Unternet, which he shares with Red Star. Red Star says that he already knew that, but since Mikalek was helping the Russian economy, he was fine with it. Realizing that Red Star was in Mikalek's pocket, Tim gives Promise a communicator, tells her to run and engages Red Star in battle. Tim leads Red Star away from Promise and eventually makes his way onto Red Star's spaceship, where he finds a whole mess of missiles. However, Tim's communicator becomes corrupted by the Unternet and knocks out everybody who was using one, including Tim, which ends this issue.

Thoughts: Um, this issue was okay, I guess... It was a bit confusing at times, but since it was the first part of a story, I can understand that. I was a bit disappointed by Red Star's apparent villain turn, but with all the crap he's been through since Infinite Crisis, I wouldn't be surprised to see him go kind of crazy. Besides that, I really don't have much to say about this storyline yet. I'm sure things will become a bit more clear come next issue.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.You KNOW Dick Grayson would have hopped right in that shower!

Red Robin #17

Overall: This isn't going to be an easy comic to review since so much happened in it, but complaining about things won't get this review taken care of. So let's get to it! We kick things off with Red Robin(Tim Drake)heading to Hong Kong to touch base with his contact there, the former Batgirl, Cassandra Cain(?!). Tim asks Cassandra if she was able to discover the truth about Lynx and her claim that she was an undercover member of the Hong Kong police department sent to infiltrate a Chinese gang in Gotham, but Cassandra wasn't able to dig up much useful information. After some pleasantries, Tim heads back to Gotham and meets up with his old friend Ives(!). The two talk about school and such before Tim heads to the hospital where he speaks with the former Anarky, Lonnie Machin. Lonnie is still paralyzed thanks to the actions of the current Anarky, but Tim asks Lonnie to become his own personal hacker, which Lonnie accepts. Lonnie discovers that the Hong Kong PD did indeed have three undercover officers who could possibly fit Lynx's profile, however, the files were inconclusive as to the whereabouts of these officers. With Lynx about to be sent to the INS by the Gotham Police Department, Tim decides to rescue her from custody, just in case she was indeed an undercover cop. As thanks for rescuing her, Lynx plants a big ol' kiss on Tim, who enjoys the moment before he realizes that he's Tim Drake, and as such pushes her away. Lynx takes off, and Tim is met on the rooftop by the recently returned Bruce Wayne(Batman, duh!). The two talk about their plans and what had gone on in Bruce's absence before sharing an embrace, with this issue ending the way it should have, with Bruce and Tim swinging off the rooftop together.

Yeah, the sappy, sentimental part of me really liked this issue. A lot. I mean as a huge fan of Tim Drake(I DID read his ENTIRE series a few months back), I really enjoyed seeing Tim interact with Cassandra and Ives, two characters who played a big role at one time or another in the old Robin series. And the embrace with Bruce? I won't lie, it brought a big, dopey smile on my face. In a weird way, a lot happened here, although nothing REALLY happened... Confusing, no? I mean Tim did a lot of stuff, but with the exception of springing Lynx, none of the stuff that happened in this issue means all that much going forward. It was nice seeing Tim interact with Ives, Cassandra, Lonnie and Bruce, but storywise, nothing important really went down here. So this issue was more or less written for us Tim Drake fans. And as a fan of Tim Drake, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this issue.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.:-)

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Red Robin #1

Overall: This comic (kind of) continues from the Batman & Robin one-shot I reviewed earlier tonight. Red Robin and Bruce Wayne(in the guise of the mystery man)have headed to Amsterdam to infiltrate and take down a group of assassins called the Council of Spiders. While Tim creates trouble for the Spiders as an interfering outside super-hero, Bruce will join the team. For the most part everything goes according to plan, with Bruce saving a few of the Spiders from Tim's attack, and being offered a spot on their team. However, one of Tim's operatives, Prudence, unexpectedly arrives on the scene to help out, which wasn't in Tim's plans. Tim improvises, and in the end, he manages to take down the Spiders, fend off Bruce(who was still playing the part of the villain in case he ever needs to work with the Spiders again) and get Prudence to assist him while keeping her from killing anybody. So it's all good then? Not quite. It turns out that Prudence hasn't been loyal to Tim and instead was still in cahoots with Ra's Al Ghul, who upon hearing Prudence's reports about Tim and the mystery man puts two and two together and figures out that Bruce must have returned to life. This information actually seems to upset Ra's, who seems to think that Bruce should have contacted him and informed him of his rebirth(HA!). Poor Ra's and his hurt feelings close out this one.

First off, I'm sorry, but Ra's acting like a jealous lover definitely gave me a chuckle. What the hell did Ra's expect, his Detective to stroll up to one of Ra's bases, sit down, have a cup if tea and reminisce about the good old days?? Methinks Talia isn't the only Al Ghul infatuated with Brucie... I enjoyed this comic, although once again, Fabian made sure to play up Vicki Vale's story in this comic, as now she was accosting Alfred for answers about Bruce being Batman. I already had myself one rant about Vicki tonight, so if you want to know how I feel about her and her story, go and check out my review of the Batman and Robin one shot. The bottom line was that this was a good, if somewhat convoluted comic.

Score: 8 out of 10.The yellow utility belt is a bit on the nose, no?

Vague Reviews!!!

Hey there X-Maniacs, I'm not really in the mood to do any full reviews(hence the lack of a Superman: Secret Origin review)but I figured I could at least throw a few thoughts out there on some of the books I've read lately and see if anybody feels like talking more about them. Okay? Alright! Let's get going then.

First up is going to be X-Men vs Vampires #1(of 2). I bet if you try really hard you can probably figure out what this comic was about... No? Give up? Okay. It was about the X-Men taking on vampires in a couple of mini stories. I think there were 4 new stories(and a reprint of the X-Men taking on Dracula for the first time)and for the most part they weren't half bad. You had a Dazzler story, a Husk story, one about Martha Johansson(you know, the brain in the jar from Grant Morrison's New X run)and a Magneto story. If I had to choose I'd say the Magneto story was the best, but there really wasn't a “worst”, which is a bit of a surprise considering that these type of comics usually suck. Nice work Marvel! I'll give this one a 7 1/2 out of 10.

Next we'll take a wacky trip into the mind of one Grant Morrison with Batman & Robin #14. I'd say that I understood about 35% of what was going on in this comic, which was definitely an improvement, since I usually understand about 7% of what goes on in this series. The good was definitely Joker's interactions with Damian. It was nice to see Grant take Joker and move away from the way he had been portraying Mistah J during the Batman RIP storyline. Sorry, but I like my Joker in the purple suit telling jokes, not in a tank-top with a split tongue. The rest of the story I could have done without. To say that I hate Pyg is a massive understatement and I just don't know where Grant is trying to go with this Black Glove thing. To be honest, I'm kind of shocked that the whole Black Glove story is STILL going on! Score-wise, I'll go with a 4 out of 10.

Staying with DC, I also checked out Red Robin #16. Here we have Red Robin once again butting heads with Anarky. Anarky has been running around killing teenagers who fit the profile of being Red Robin, which Red Robin naturally doesn't take very kindly to. The fight doesn't end conclusively as Anarky manages to escape, although Red Robin does manage to rescue the original Anarky from the clutches of the current Anarky. Confusing enough? First off, I REALLY like the idea of Anarky becoming a reoccurring/arch-enemy type of character for Tim, because let's face it, that's something that he's never really had. As for the story itself, it was good. I can't really think of anything to complain about, so I'll score it a 7 out of 10 and move on.

And I'll end things with the pick of the litter, Avengers Prime #3(of 5). This comic was a blast to read. The story was cohesive, the dialogue was at times laugh out loud funny and the artwork was by Alan Davis, so you know it was good. We get a kick ass battle between Thor and Hela, Steve Rogers scaring off a horde of ogres with a stern look(man is he awesome...)and Tony Stark riding a horse in the nude. What more could you want from a comic?! This one was written by Brian Michael Bendis, who seems to be regaining more and more of my respect with each new comic he puts out lately. Where has THIS Bendis been for the past 4 years?? I mean there was a time when I wouldn't even read a Bendis written comic because I KNEW it wouldn't be worth my time, but since Siege ended, Bendis has been on fire! Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself with all of this praise... This comic gets the best score of the night with a nearly perfect 9 1/2 out of 10.

So there you have it, four comics down and posted about. As I said earlier, if you want to discuss one of these books in more detail, drop me a comment and I'll be sure to get back to you. I've got to say, tackling these comics in this format was a lot easier than trying to review every single little thing that happened in the book. I'll leave you tonight with two pages from Avengers Prime #3. Until next time, X out.What can I really add to this?

Red Robin #15

Red Robin #15: Writer: Fabian Nicieza. Pencils: Marcus To.

Review: This issue opens with Tim Drake(in leg braces)going to visit(not bald, not fat and not old)Captain Boomerang in prison. Why? To tell Boomerang to rot in jail. But that really has nothing to do with the main story, so let's move on. Tim, as Red Robin, breaks into Vicki Vale's apartment and discovers that she had seemingly put together all of the members of the Bat-family, from Bruce being Bats, all the way down to Damian being the new Robin. Tim reports his findings back to Dick at Wayne Towers, and they decide that they need to come up with a plan to throw Vicki off their trail. Damian recommends just killing Vicki(HA!), while Tim begins to concoct a plan in his head that might throw Vicki off the trail. And so Tim begins to put his plan into motion by deciding to hold a press conference to announce that he was going to reveal the names of the two crooked detectives in the GCPD who were working with several street gangs. The crooked detectives had hired the assassin Scarab to silence Tim Drake(which Tim had actually set up himself)and the press conference would be the perfect opportunity for Scarab to make good on the hit. With Scarab watching the press conference from a nearby rooftop, Tim begins to talk about his programs to help the youths of Gotham, and then began to turn his attention to the crooked cops, which caused Scarab to raise her gun and target Tim. Just as Tim was about to reveal the names of the crooked detectives, Scarab goes to take her shot, but her aim is messed up at the last second when Red Robin hits her gun with a batarang, leading to Tim getting shot in the abdomen... Wait, Red Robin attacked Scarab while Tim Drake was shot?! Yes, and I'll get to that in a moment. While Tim is rushed to a hospital, Red Robin defeats Scarab with an EMP pulse that fries her armor. At the hospital, the doctors are preparing to operate on Tim, when Dr. Thompkins rushes into the emergency room and tells the other doctors that according to Bruce Wayne, only she was to operate on Tim, which causes the other doctors to vacate the room. With the doctors gone, “Tim” turns into Miss Martian, while Red Robin steps out of the shadows and thanks her for her assistance. With that, Dr. Thompins shows doctored x-rays to the press, which indicate that Tim had suffered a slight spinal injury, which leads to Tim wearing leg braces and walking with crutches. Seeing Tim get shot as Red Robin was battling Scarab also helps to leave Vicki Vale somewhat confused as to whether or not her information on the Bat-family was as sure as she had thought it was. This issue ends with Tim emerging from the hospital and giving up the names of the crooked detectives, which obviously infuriates them, as well as angering Anarky, who was watching Tim on the television, since he was also trying to piece together exactly who Red Robin was.

What I Thought: There was absolutely nothing wrong with this comic. It was what I'd term a perfectly acceptable comic. Several storylines were moved along/closed out here, as Scarab was put in custody, the crooked detectives were revealed, and Vicki Vale's investigation was stymied. Plus Anarky showing up at the end of this comic shows us that Fabian is ready to move forward with a new storyline. And to be honest, I've been waiting to see Anarky since the end of the Robin series, so I'm happy to see that he'll be showing up here. In a perfect world, Anarky will end up being Tim's Joker, but I guess that remains to be seen. Anyway, this was a good if not great comic that should definitely be picking up with future issues.

Score: 8 out of 10.That's gonna leave a mark!

Red Robin #14

Red Robin #14: Writer: Fabian Nicieza. Pencils: Marcus To.

Review: This issue opens up with Damian Wayne cracking Tim's password on the Bat-computer and learning something that absolutely infuriates him. What is it? You'll have to wait to find out! While Damian is hacking the computer, Tim is doing the Red Robin thing, and he manages to apprehend Brutale, although Brutale's accomplice, some female assassin with a knife manages to get away, thanks to a certain small, cloaked figure dropping a billboard in front of Tim. Tim heads back to the Batcave and types into the computer that he had apprehended Brutale, just as a certain cloaked figure, Damian, arrives. Damian indicates that he'd like to go out on patrol with Tim, but Tim pretty much blows him off, telling Damian that if Batman wasn't back from some Justice League business he had to deal with by the following night, Tim would take Damian with him. Tim accosts some crooked detectives he had been working with, and tells them that not only was he(Red Robin)angry with the crooked cops, but so was the Wayne Foundation(which just so happens to be headed up by Tim). The next day Tim and Damian head out on patrol, and Tim manages to find the female associate of Brutale hiding out in a hotel room. Before Tim can make a move on the woman, Damian cuts Tim's Bat-line and sends him hurtling towards the pavement. Tim manages to regain his senses and lands gracefully, but is soon attacked by an infuriated Damian, who rants about Tim bringing this fight onto himself. While Tim parries Damian's attacks, he notices the female assassin making a break for it, so he snares the woman with his grappling rope and flings her into Damian, momentarily knocking the wind out of Damian and taking the woman out all together. Tim grabs the groggy Damian by the cape and tosses him on a nearby rooftop, where Tim then proceeds to beat the hell out of the current Robin. Before he can continue the beatdown, Batman arrives on the scene and ends the fight, shaming both Robins by pointing out that they had allowed their fight to cross into Crime Alley, right in front of the movie theatre where Bruce Wayne's parents were killed. Bats takes the Robins back to the Cave, and Damian demands that Tim show everybody the secret program he had created. With the cat out of the bag, Tim reveals to Bats and Alfred that behind the screen where he was keeping tabs on the various villains in his life, he had a separate screen where he was keeping an eye on various heroes, Damian included. Damian complains about how he'd done everything that had been asked of him, and that Tim STILL not trusting him just wasn't fair. Bats agrees and sends Damian and Alfred out of the Cave so he could speak to Tim in private. Dick explains to Tim that deep down all Damian wants is acceptance and that Tim's actions, and especially how easy his password was to crack was a big mistake. In the end, Dick realized that the relationship between Tim and Damian would always be icy at best, and that there was nothing he could do to change that. This issue ends with the two crooked cops from earlier hiring Scarab to assassinate Tim Drake.

What I Thought: This was probably my favorite portrayal of Damian EVER! Instead of being shown as an unstoppable, emotionless killing machine, we FINALLY get a glimpse into Damian's head, and see that all he really craves is the acceptance and approval of his father's colleagues. Why Grant Morrison can't write Damian like that is beyond me, but hey, if you ask me Fabian is 10 times the writer Grant is, so I guess that explains that. That's right, I went there! Besides the great Damian/Tim interactions, Tim continues to check villains off of his list, with this issue ending with Tim tricking the crooked cops into hiring Scarab to kill Tim Drake, exactly as Tim hoped they would. Once again, good job done here that has me eagerly anticipating the next issue.

Score: 9 out of 10.You had to know I'd pick a scan where Damian was getting beaten up!

The Best of the Rest!!! June 12th edition.

It's Saturday, which means it it's time for me to give my uninformed, overly sarcastic and at times offensive opinions on comic books and their creators, that's right, it's time for a new installment of The Best of the Rest! A quick word to the wise, if you have no sense of humor, or are easily offended by the opinions of other people, you should probably skip this post... Still here? Good! I fully intend on doing pseudo-reviews for four comics tonight, although I may do more then four. What do I know, I'm typing up this intro before I start the reviews, so who knows, maybe I'll be SO bored today I'll end up with a humongous BotR... Or maybe not. What can I say, I'm a man of intrigue and mystery! Um, I guess I might as well get started...

Brightest Day #2: Ugh, what a way to start... I'm tempted to just say, “A whole bunch of unrelated stuff happened and then this comic ended”, but I'll put a little(a VERY little)bit more effort into things... Firestorm explodes for some reason, and of course the Atom was present, because little GEOFFY would have cried if one of his favorites didn't appear in this comic right off the bat... A White Martian(or at least what I THINK was a White Martian...)bitches about the Martian Manhunter being alive again, and the Hawks continue to be uninteresting. The Martian Manhunter messes with an old woman's head because he can, and Deadman continues to be yanked around by his White ring, because that hasn't gotten REALLY old by now. And for whatever reason, this issue ends with Deadman being confronted by the Anti-Monitor. To it all, I say a very hearty, WHATEVER! All I want is a cohesive storyline, not a bunch of(for the most part)uninteresting dangling plot threads. On the plus side though, SAINT Barry didn't show up, so at least there's that... Score: 6 out of 10.But where's SAINT Barry!?!

Age of Heroes #1: I guess I really felt like wasting $4 last time I placed a comic order, because I'm not sure why else I'd have brought this comic. We have four stories in this comic, one starring he of the Hitler mustache, J. Jonah Jameson, a story on the love-life of Doctor Brother Voodoo(worst name EVER!), a little snippet(yes, a snippet!)where Capt. Rogers tries to steal Capt. Britain from the MI:13, and a one page Spider-Man story... That's right, a ONE page Spider-Man story! How weird is that?! Did Marvel put together this comic and realize they had a floating page, and decide to toss in a ONE page Spidey story?! Weird... Each story seemed to be worse then the one before it, with the Jameson story being the strongest one of the bunch... I do have to say though, I just can't buy Jameson as the Mayor of NYC... The guy has a Hitler mustache for crying out loud!!! What self-respecting New Yorker could possibly pull the voting lever for a guy who's wearing Hitler's mustache!?! Sure Rudy had that awful comb over, but still! I don't know, maybe it's just me... Score: 5 out of 10.Who knew one day Hitler would be elected mayor of NYC!

The Return of Bruce Wayne #2: Oh man, it just keeps getting worse! I must have really displeased the Comic Gods today, 'cause they're tossing a bunch of really bad comics my way! I'm not even going to try to do any kind of proper review for this comic, because I honestly don't think I'd be able to... I'm just going to hit on the main points(or the main points that I could understand...)and then complain about this series, Grant Morrison and DC until I get bored and feel like moving on. So Bruce Wayne is slowly traveling back to the 21st century because Darkseid infected him with some sort of catastrophic doomsday weapon(sort of like a REAL bad STD)that's going to kill EVERYBODY if Bruce returns to the present, I guess because Darkseid knew he'd lose in the end... Huh, so among all of Darkseid's other faults, I guess he has some very low self-esteem. Annnd that's about all I got out of this comic... Yeah, it was THAT bad... Let's just pretend this comic never happened and move on... Score: 1 1/2 out of 10. Why a 1 1/2? I don't know, why not. I don't think I've ever given out a 1 1/2 before, so at least I can check that off my list of blog accomplishments.I once had a nightmare that looked and sounded like this... I woke up crying, and slept with the lights on for a month...

Gotham City Sirens #12: Man, sometimes it's really tough to do this job... I mean just look at the last three pseudo-reviews! Those were some BRUTAL comics! If things don't pick up here, I quit! Okay, with that empty threat out of the way, let's see what's up with GCS this month. Catwoman has suddenly decided to find her crazy sister(better late then never, right?), and has attacked a priest to steal some files about her sister... You know, it's ONE thing to steal from a church, but it's another to attack a priest while doing it. That's probably not the smartest of moves... Anywho, Catwoman finds the file she was looking for, and is joined by Harley Quinn, who is just sort of there for some reason... I guess she was bored or something. Meanwhile, Poison Ivy breaks out of the plant deathtrap she was snared in last issue and decides to give the woman who was going to kill her a job, because... well, I really don't know why. Maybe Ivy's brain-damaged after being stuck in the big plant dehydrator thing. Selina's crazy sister attacks and kills an exorcist and takes all of the dead exorcist's weapons so she can exorcise Catwoman. While going through the dead exorcist woman' stuff, she gets possessed by a crazy angel, and the two decide to do crazy things like hunt Catwoman down. So Catwoman's crazy sister(now possessed by a crazy angel)sets up a meeting with Catwoman at a crazy cemetery(what? I've got a theme going on here!), which leads to Catwoman's crazy sister hitting Harley Quinn in her crazy head, ending this crazy issue. Hmm, I think I may have gone a tad overboard with the word “crazy” here... Oh well, what's done is done! Score: 9 out of 10.What's scarier then a nun with a sword? A FLYING nun with a sword!!!

RED ROBIN #13!: Yes, obviously from the fully capitalized title, I'm pretty excited to FINALLY be able to read an issue of Red Robin. Since the first 12 issues were written by a writer who is SO terrible I won't even bother typing his name(yeah, I REALLY don't like him), I refused to read 'em. Now that Fabian Nicieza has taken up the writing chores, Red Robin is finally on my monthly pull list. Huzzah! Needless to say, this was a set-up issue, and since this isn't a real review, and is instead only a PSEUDO-review, I'm not going to bother getting too in-depth with stuff here. Basically Tim is working out of Gotham and living with Dick, Alfred and the tyke from hell, Damian. Tim decides to take down the head of the Golden Dragons gang, Lynx, and does just that, although Lynx claims to be an undercover cop from Hong Kong after Tim busts her. Oops! Tim hands her over to the fuzz regardless, but is a bit conflicted about whether or not he did the right thing. Huh, Tim was giving off a really strong Spider-Man vibe here... DC would be really smart to play that up, but I'm sure they won't... Score: 8 out of 10.I figured posting a pic of Tim Drake in the shower would get me more followers. Sure they'll all be women or gay men, but beggers can't be choosers! And so a hearty welcome to my new followers!!! :P

Green Blogger Corps #1: Before you check out this review, you should DEFINITELY read the first issue of the GBC here. Why not read it, it's free!!! Okay, now to the review... This was one of the better first issues I've read in quite some time! We get to meet the main characters AND get a pretty sweet battle scene. If only certain OTHER writers knew how to put a comic together like this... *coughMORRISONReturnofBruceWaynecough* Anywho, we meet JT Jordon of the Green Blogger Corps, as well as several of his fellow GBC members, including the intelligent Falisha Ferris, the gruff Nagash Gardner, the artistic Marc Rayner, and the gruff Kellowog... Wait, I already used “gruff” didn't I... Um, and the surly Kellowog(there, that's better!). Sure, all of these characters were great in their own way, but none of them compared to the AWESOME Sinestr-X. Sinestr-X WAS the star of this comic for me, hands down. Every scene he was in was pure magic, and when he wasn't around, I found myself wondering(oftentimes aloud), “Where's Sinestr-X?!?” He was THAT good! I'm definitely looking forward to the next issue of this series, and as long as Sinestr-X is tearing stuff up, I know I'll be happy! :D Score: 10! out of 10.But where's Sinestr-X?!?

A Quick Look at World's Finest #1(of 4)

Writer: Sterling Gates. Pencils: Julian Lopez.

What Happened: We start with Red Robin battling some bikers in Amsterdam. As RR prepares to eliminate the last biker, he is helped by some tactile telekinesis. Assuming it was Superboy helping him out, RR turns around and finds Nightwing hovering in the air above him. Nightwing calls RR by his first name, which irritates RR, but NW reveals to RR that he is actually Chris Kent(who RR met a while back)and that he needs the assistance of RR. NW explains that his partner, Flamebird was kidnapped by the Penguin and his associate, the Kryptonite Man. Something in the Penguin's building is interfering with NW's x-ray vision, and with Penguin operating out of Gotham City, NW was hoping RR would lend a hand. RR is very reluctant to help at first, but finally relents and the two heroes head to Gotham. By this point, Penguin is holding an auction to sell Flamebird to the highest bidder, with Kryptonite Man keeping her sedated. RR winds up breaking into Penguin's base and attacks Penguin and his goons. NW soon enters the fray and dumps liquid lead on the Kryptonite Man(rendering his radiation harmless to Kryptonians)and proceeds to heat the lead up to the point where it solidifies on Kryptonite Man. RR knocks Penguin out and NW takes RR and Flamebird back to Amsterdam. Flamebird and Nightwing help RR fins some 200 year old letter he was looking for in Amsterdam before the two Kryptonians head back to Metropolis. This issue ends with the Toyman rescuing the Kryptonite Man from his lead casing and strapping him down to an operating table.

What I Thought: Well, there was some good here, along with some bad. I guess I'll start with the good. The story was solid and fast paced, and I liked the dynamic between Red Robin and Nightwing. Besides the good story, the art was also well done, so no complaints there either. No, my main complaints would have to deal with the choice of villains thus far in this mini-series. I've never hid my hatred for the Penguin. He's a short, fat guy with an umbrella fetish. What the hell does the Penguin bring to any comic book? In my opinion, absolutely nothing. But then Sterling topped the Penguin with the even more useless villain, the Toyman! Ugh, what's next, an evil talking monkey?

Score: 7 out of 10.Um, shouldn't Red Robin have at least tried to deny that Tim was his real name? Jeez, when did the Bat-family get so lax with their secret identities?